ABSTRACT
In the last one decade the numbers of internally displaced persons (IDP) are on the increase in South Asia just as in many other parts of the world. Discrimination against minorities, violence, war, ethnic hatred, state repression, demands for self-determination, natural and man-made disasters such as famines and floods, ill-conceived development projects such as highways and dams—all have contributed massively to internal displacement. Principal internal displacement includes victims of conflict who chose to remain in Afghanistan rather than flee to neighbouring countries. The causes of internal displacement in Afghanistan have been: Soviet invasion in 1979; start of civil war in 1993; drought and famine of 1996; US air strikes in 2001; anti-Pakhtun violence since Northern Alliance regained power in 2001. Independent of their ethnicity, refugees returning to the east—and particularly those who have been forcibly expelled from their country of exile—are at high risk of secondary displacement.
